To Be A Serpent
by Phoenix Belfalas
Summary: ‘As long as there is a Slytherin House, we will be shunned. I know this – that to be a serpent in the House of Snakes is to live a life of hell.’


Title – To Be a Serpent

Authoress – Phoenix Tears

Summary – 'As long as there is a Slytherin House, we will be shunned. I know this – that to be a serpent in the House of Snakes is to live a life of hell.'

Rating – G

Warning – Quite angsty, pro-Slytherin and somewhat accusing of the Light side.

Disclaimer – I own nothing, except for this plot. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Authoress' Note – I am a citizen of America, so pardon the spellings if they are not strictly United Kingdom type English… you know, with 'colour' or 'color'…

Feedback – Of course, as for every writer, questions, thoughts, and constructive criticism are all greatly appreciated. Thank you, and enjoy.

            When I walked up that aisle – at the time, so huge and forbidding and beautiful – and sat down on that stool and put on the shabby Sorting Hat, my fate was sealed.

            _'Slytherin!'_ the Sorting Hat shouted.

            I knew that, for the next seven years of my life, I would be living a life of masks, façades, and prejudice.

            I knew that, for the next seven years of my life, I would be shunned by my peers in the other Houses, and be ostracized because of my House.

            _Slytherin_.

            The day the Sorting Hat declared my House as Slytherin, it had condemned me.

            _Why?_ I often asked myself. _Why are people so prejudiced against the House of the Snake?_

            I know why.

            _Because the first ever wizard-gone-Dark was in Slytherin._

_            Because Slytherin was Salazar's House, and it was he who first lost faith in Hogwarts, he who first left in protest of the others, he who had a burning hatred for Godric and Muggle-borns and Mudbloods._

_            Because we Housed the greatest, most powerful Dark wizards of all time – Dracula, Grindlewald, and Voldemort._

            Because_._ Simply because.

            Draco smiles reassuringly at me in the privacy of Slytherin dorms and tells me that everything will be all right, that the other Houses will finally realize their mistakes, that Slytherin House will no longer be ostracized unfairly.

            He tells me that Slytherin shall rise up to its former glory – the glory it held so many centuries ago – as being the pureblooded House of the elegant, the intelligent, the cunning, the aristocrats.

            That was how it was so many centuries ago, I am told.

            But I see things differently.__

            As long as there is a Slytherin House, we will be shunned.

            I know this – that to be a serpent in the House of Snakes is to live a life of hell.

            Ah, here comes 'The Golden Trio' – 

            Harry Potter, _Wow! Did you see his scar?! I gotta go get his autograph! Now, look, first-years, you see that one over there? That's _Harry Potter_…_

            Ronald Weasley, _Ron is Harry's best friend and constant companion… I heard that he got past McGonagall's life-size chess set in his first year!_

             Hermione Granger, _She's the smartest witch in our year, and Head Girl, no less! Whenever you need help for homework or anything, go to Hermione; she can help you._

            – who do no wrong and are the heroes of the wizarding world. They are the famous, the heroic, the moralistic – go to them when you are wronged, befriend them, worship them, love them.

            And here comes 'Infamous Silver' – 

            Draco Malfoy, _Oh, he's Harry's worst enemy. Don't go near him, though he is Head Boy, he's a _Malfoy… _Who cares if he got top grades in our year? He's still evil…_

            Blaise Zabini, _Malfoy's closest crony, he is – Now, all of you Ravenclaw first years, no matter what, never ask that Slytherin prefect over there for any help, you hear?_

            Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, _You don't want to cross _them_… My brother told me they could break bones like _that! _No, really, they can!_

            – the bullies of the school, the sons of Death Eaters and Dark wizards, the ones who little ickle firsties shouldn't associate with. They are the evil, the malicious, the very epitome of _Dark_ – shun them, hate them, ignore them.

            To be a serpent is to see these things in the eyes of truth.

            Draco and I have been best friends since we could remember – our mothers held extravagant social gatherings together, our fathers sipped expensive champagne with one another on cool summer evenings. Naturally, we would be the best of companions, as well.

            He plays the piano; I play the violin. We often make excursions to the music room in the fifth floor corridor at night under his Invisibility Cloak to practise our music.

            'Music is magic', Draco says with a far-off, dreamy look in his eyes.

            I think he loves his music more than anything in the world.

            Other people don't see this side of him – the laughing side, the serious side, the witty side, the intelligent side.

            They see the façade Draco – the sarcastic, cutting, bitter Draco with a sneer always plastered onto his face, the aristocratic Draco who looks down on all Muggles and Mudbloods, the bullying, teasing, cruel Draco who can rival Snape for coldness.

            When people look at me, they see Draco's companion. They see a quiet, studious, aloof aristocrat that has glares of icy daggers, who all the younger students learn _never_ to cross. They see a seventh-year Slytherin that hates Muggles and Mudbloods as much as his best friend; they see a boy who can slice through your thoughts with merely a look.

            As much as I am flattered by what people see, it's not my true self.

            It's all your fault, really.

            All your fault for treating us this way, for shunning us, for making fun of us and then blaming us for retaliating.

            You're a bunch of fucking hypocrites, did you know?

            Dumbledore looks on and smiles sadly, the old fool, but does not do anything. McGonagall and Lupin watch and try to be fair to all. 

            But in the end, if it's Potter against Malfoy, Granger against Zabini, Weasley against Goyle and Crabbe, Gryffindor against Slytherin, it's _our_ fault.

            Always our fault. You don't say it, but the meaning is clear as if you had written it on a neon green banner with pink spots in colour-changing ink and posted it in the Great Hall for all to see.

            You give the Slytherins stern looks and Gryffindors kind smiles, and take off points from the House of the Serpent and give points to the House of the Lion.

            You say it's _our_ fault.

            But it's all _your_ fault, really.

            Voldemort and the Death Eaters offer us power, acceptation, and friendship.

            Your side – the _Light_, you say proudly – give us hatred, shunning, and prejudice.

            It takes an idiot to pick which side we would choose.

            And then, when we join the side that offers us all we have ever wanted, all we have ever needed, you scorn us and mock us and tell us that you could have saved us.

            Hah!

            You, save _us_?

            I think it is _you_ that needs saving, _Light_.

            You are so blinded by your assumptions and prejudice that you cannot see the world around you.

            Look, _Light_, and tell me -

            Are there any more Slytherins than Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that end up becoming Death Eaters? Are there no Gryffindors that are Death Eaters?

            Are you not guilty of the same crimes you accuse us of?

            Do you not see your hypocrisy and wonder, sometimes, why we do what we do?

            Look, _Light_, and tell me -

            Whose fault is it, really?

Authoress' Note: _Pulvis et umbra sumus_. We are dust and shadow. Basically, I think that Latin terms sums up what Slytherins are – dark, forbidding, but misunderstood. Please review!

AGGHHH! *dies of embarrassment* I put this fic in the LOTR section, originally, instead of Harry Potter… oh, god, I feel so mortified. *runs away and dies in a corner* But the error has been fixed… Sorry everyone! 


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